Forever From the Start
by moonswirl
Summary: Gleekathon, day five hundred and nine:  top 16  Burt's been planning this for a while, now he just has to hope his nerves hang on.


Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 24th cycle. Now cycle 25!

_**It's cycle 25!**__ If you'll recall, back in cycle 10 I did my top 15 of favorite things (characters, ships, friends..) in Glee, with a ficlet for each of the numbers, and a chapter fic for number 1 (stories 190 to 210). Now this time around, in order to schedule in a friend's birthday, it's a top SIXTEEN, and the number one's six-chapter fic will be split in three blocks... (5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters-5 ficlets-2 chapters) It's less confusing than it seems, I promise ;) Here we go!  
**Coming in at number twelve!**_

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**"Forever From the Start"  
Burt/Carole **

Burt Hummel was not so good with surprises, with secrets… They could always see him coming. But this one… This one he'd managed to keep it to himself and all he could think about, the closer they got to the date, was that at some point between now and then someone would figure it out… Carole most of all.

But they didn't. He got to that morning with no one the wiser. He didn't know how good this whole trepidation was for his heart, but knowing what this would mean made it all just a little easier. He just had to hang on a little while longer, and then his time would come.

He went to pick up Carole, to drive her to work, as he did on that day every week. He could barely look at her on that morning, not wanting to spoil the surprise. He tried to look concentrated on the road, that way he could continue talking to her without seeing her face and ending up spilling the beans right then and there. The closer they got to the school, the more confident he got… He even snuck a glance or two as they spoke. Then he stopped the car.

"We're at McKinley," Carole realized.

"We are," Burt confirmed.

"Is one of the boys in trouble?" she asked with a sigh.

"You could say that," he spoke to himself, a small smirk teasing at his face. "Come on," he told her, getting out of the car. She did the same, straightening up her clothes before he led her into the school. She hadn't said a word, and it was a good thing the room wasn't too far off or she'd probably lock into Mom mode. When they reached the door, he stopped her and looked inside. He'd just had this fear at the last moment that they would find the room occupied and he'd have to do what he was about to do in front of twenty-something teenagers… he would have done it, if the need had presented itself, but he was relieved it didn't. The next fear was that the door would be locked when he tried the handle… it wasn't. He breathed out, opening the door and pulling Carole inside before closing it again.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"Are you whispering?" he turned to her with a chuckle.

"No," she whispered, then shook her head. "No," she spoke. "What's going on, I thought one of the boys…" she pointed in the general direction of Figgins' office.

"You didn't ask which boy," he tilted his head.

"Oh…" she slowly nodded, still not completely sure what was going on. "What did you do?" she asked, made curious and just a little playful now.

"I haven't done it yet," he explained. "But I'm going to." He paused, looking around. "Do you know why we're here?" He looked back at her and, seeing the look on her face, he explained further. "I mean this room in particular, not the school as a whole." Now she paused, looking around.

"Isn't this the room where they had the… where we…" she turned back to Burt and he had his hat off. "… met," she finished, and her hand went to her mouth as pieces started to add toward a hypothesis, though she wasn't sure whether she was right just yet.

Before he could answer though, the door opened and kids started to file in, taking the desks, paying little to no attention to the couple at the front. "Great…" Burt mumbled under his breath.

"We should probably get out of here, there's…" Carole started, but Burt stopped her.

"No, no, Carole, hang on," he told her, sneaking a glance to the side. Now more of the kids were staring back at them. "Nose in your books," he told them. "There's something I have to do, and I've been planning it this way too long to change now," he spoke to them and then to Carole as he looked back to her. She was halfway between smiling and crying… She was almost positive now.

"Burt…" she started, and he grasped her hands in his.

"All this time, and I didn't think about this part, I… It doesn't matter," he shook his head. "Carole, I love you. And I know things haven't been easy with us so far, with our boys, and their problems, and my health, but I can't think of anything else that would heal my heart like you can. Now it wasn't just Carole who had a sneaking suspicion; half the class was looking on with smiles of their own. "You're the best thing that's happened to me in such a long time. We stood right here, less than a year ago, and… it worked, you and I… We worked, and I know that's not going to change for me, and if I know you like I know I do, it's not changing for you either," he went on, and he swore he saw her head shake ever so lightly, as though to say 'that's right, it won't.' He let out a breath, going down on one knee in front of her. "Look at that, wasn't sure if I'd be able to do it, I haven't been in the best of shape," he smiled up at her, and she laughed. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a small box. He looked back at her, seeing how emotional she was getting, now he had to fight back from crying, too. "Carole Hudson… you're the dream, you are," he told her, fumbling a little to get the box open and present it to her, "And all I want to know is if you'll be my wife. Will you marry me?" There was a rumble of murmurs from their captive audience. They didn't have to wait long.

"Yes, of course, yes!" Carole responded, trying to control the sudden giddiness inside her. "Get up, now, you'll hurt yourself," she told him with a laugh, helping him back to his feet as the class cheered. Back eye to eye now, they were all smiles as he put the ring on her finger. She looked at it for a moment, resting her head to Burt's shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her, and she looked up, kissing him.

"What's going on here?" they were interrupted and turned to find a woman at the door, no doubt the teacher. Burt put his hat back on, taking Carole's hand.

"Sorry, we'll get out of your hair, he nodded, leading his future wife out.

"Congratulations!" some of the kids called after them, and Burt waved. Carole was laughing as they made it into the hall, and then she thought…

"Oh, we need to tell the boys! They don't know, do they?"

"They don't," he confirmed. "Come on, I think I know where we can find Kurt."

THE END

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**A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.  
****In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are  
****always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!**


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